Product Reviews

The arrival of the new wave of Web design packages like Adobe GoLive! and Softpress Freeway means non-technical designers can easily create complex Web pages. But to the dismay of HTML purists, the size of Web sites that such programs produce has rocketed, as the HTML and script data they generate pays more respect to legibility than compactness.

To the rescue comes Mizer, an HTML optimisation utility that compresses pages so they display faster on the Web. Although targeted at sites created with WYSIWYG HTML editors and their attendant redundant HTML and JavaScript syntax, the makers claim you'll see a marked reduction in file size, irrespective of the page-creation tools used.

The program's HTML compressor works by removing the aesthetic elements of a Web page's source code, such as script comments, spaces, and redundant image information. Simply drag and drop a bloated Web page - or an entire site - onto Mizer and, within a few seconds, you're left with a lean and admittedly impenetrable file.

Even pages hand-constructed using a text editor such as BBEdit will see a reduction in file size of around 10%, but users of graphical HTML editors will see the greatest benefit, with files shrinking by around a quarter.

While these figures are impressive, Mizer makes no attempt to be the most rigorous HTML compressor around. The program won't touch tags, for example, because they're considered unlikely

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to be superfluous to requirements. But that means all those tags in files produced by many HTML editors go untouched, too. Mizer doesn't correct bad HTML syntax, either - for example, it won't add a trailing backslash ('/') to linked URLs, which would fractionally speed up a Web page.

But if Mizer's approach is conservative, it's also remarkably safe. Even pages containing complex JavaScript remain outwardly identical after being compressed.

Web sites aren't made up of HTML alone, and the program goes some way to providing an all-encompassing solution. Mizer now incorporates both JPEG and GIF compression utilities. Again, it's impossible to notice the difference between the original and the compressed version.

Mizer lacks customisation features, although this isn't a major flaw. You're given the option of backing up the files before compression, generating a log file each time a file or folder is optimised, and turning on and off each compression feature. One useful add-on is the bundling of several AppleScripts, including one to automatically compress your local site folder and publish it via Fetch.

Mizer's only real flaw is its poorly designed backup feature. The program doesn't tell you that backup files will reside in the same folder as the originals, leaving you with the task of extracting duplicates before the files can be uploaded. There's no way to alter the backup destination folder either, so the only solution is to deselect the program's backup option and manually duplicate the folder to be compressed before Mizer goes to work. The program betrays an inconsistent approach to backup, too - while copies of HTML and JPEG files are automatically created, it won't do the same for GIFs, replacing originals without asking.

These drawbacks are irritating rather than serious, however, and although Mizer can't be regarded as a complete solution to HTML compression, it achieves exactly what it sets out to do without threatening the integrity of your pages.